"Am I discriminated against?"
Author: Prof. Constantina Badea, Social Psychology, Université Paris Nanterre
The radicalization of young French Muslims may have several precursors, including a greater attachment to the religious group. Why does being Muslim become important in defining the Self? Why do young French people whose parents are North African immigrants start to feel attached to the Muslim religion, to perceive themselves as Muslims rather than as French, or simply young?
Imagine a young North African in a "chic" restaurant in Paris. The server seems to take care of all the other clients except him. Now suppose he parked his car on the street and bought a ticket for an hour's parking. He has finished his dinner and returns to his vehicle shortly after the ticket expires. A police officer is inspecting his car while writing a report. The young Muslim tries to negotiate, the parking ticket expired only two minutes ago, but the officer still gives him the fine. These are scenarios used in social psychology research to measure the perception of discrimination among young French Muslims. The researchers ask them to imagine themselves in one of these ambiguous situations and to indicate to what extent they think that the French people's behavior towards them in these scenarios is discriminatory. Results show the negative effects of the perception of discrimination on the well-being of young Muslims, but also a greater attachment to their religious in-group. This feeling of rejection by the host society leads them to prefer their parents' religious group, which they may imagine to be more welcoming.
There is a difference between individuals who arrived in France, called first-generation immigrants, and those who were born in France from foreign parents and who have French nationality, called second-generation immigrants. The latter may perceive an ambiguous situation more as a situation of discrimination. Let us take the example of social control in the face of a deviant act committed by members of minorities with a migrant background. Imagine a situation in which a young French Muslim does not leave his place in the subway to a pregnant woman and a native Frenchman verbally assaults him (i.e., social control). While first-generation immigrants would feel ashamed and express a desire to do something about this deviant act second-generation immigrants may perceive this situation as discriminatory. First generation immigrants may feel “ready to learn” the social norms of the host country through the process of socialization. Young French people of Maghreb origin may consider that they already know these norms and consequently, they may think that native French people are no more legitimate than they are, in expressing social control.
In France, the enactment of laws prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public spaces created new social norms favoring discrimination. Research in social psychology shows that members of the French majority group are more inclined to “bother” a young Muslim woman who wears the veil than a woman who wears another religious sign. This attitude seems to be legitimized by laws that interfere with the individual's freedom to practice a religion. These laws perceived by Muslims as targeting their religious group, create an ideological context unfavorable to harmonious relations between the different cultural groups in France. The Muslim religion can thus become a criterion for inclusion or exclusion from the national group. While the only wish of young French Muslims is to be perceived as French, they are constantly linked to their religion. For them, this religious group becomes a refuge, a zone of psychological comfort face to discrimination, but also a breeding ground for radicalization.
Recommended readings:
Badea, C., Jetten, J., Iyer, A., & Er‐Rafiy, A. (2011). Negotiating dual identities: The impact of group‐based rejection on identification and acculturation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 586-595.
Nugier, A., Oppin, M., Cohu, M., Kamiejski, R., Roebroeck, E., & Guimond, S. (2016). «Nouvelle laïcité» en France et pression normative envers les minorités musulmanes [Secularism in France and normative pressure against Muslim minorities]. International Review of Social Psychology, 29(1).
Oppin, M., Nugier, A., Chekroun, P., & Guimond, S. (2015). Immigrants' generational status affects emotional reactions to informal social control: The role of perceived legitimacy of the source of control. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 45, 1-10.